


Overthinking

by pennysparrow



Series: A crooked politician? Yeah but that ain't news no more [10]
Category: Les Misérables (2012), Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Schönberg/Boublil, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst with a Happy Ending, Don't copy to another site, Doubt, Gen, Happy Ending, Light Angst, M/M, Mental Anguish, Mild Language, Modern Era, Self-Doubt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-10
Updated: 2019-05-10
Packaged: 2020-02-29 06:47:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18773404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pennysparrow/pseuds/pennysparrow
Summary: Grantaire's got a week left in his junior year and he's managed to get himself in trouble. Now he's mulling it over and moping over cupcakes.*one-shot set in this 'verse and by that I just mean DC*





	Overthinking

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: R is rather hard on himself and kinda blows things out of proportion but it all works out.
> 
> Also, this is my 100th fic on ao3? Which is wild to me. Poor R, being miserable for my milestone.

Honestly the whole situation was just absurd. It was literally only a week left in the semester and it was finals week, not even classes. He hadn’t ever even done anything worse than steal silverware from the dining hall. Well discounting all the activism and other such shenanigans. But even those weren’t really anything to sneeze at since most of them were off campus anyway. Besides, John Mulaney managed to get away with doing cocaine the night before his college graduation, yet Georgetown wasn’t able to overlook Grantaire managing to climb onto a roof of an academic building? While _sober_ mind you. Ridiculous.

Grantaire wasn’t wholly surprised to see Joly and Bossuet sitting down across from him. Bossuet had already managed to get blue icing on his nose despite the short walk from the counter to the table in the back. And the fact that Joly had managed to balance both their cupcakes in his one hand and his cane in the other. R had sent them a snapchat of the patio furniture and like saying Beetlejuice three times they appeared. Which was probably a commentary on how often the three of them came to Baked & Wired.

“So, what’s the verdict?” Bossuet asked, grabbing a napkin as he sat.

“Verdict?” Grantaire raised a slow eyebrow, trying to hide his feelings of inadequacy and nerves under a cool expression laced with just a hint of ironic melancholy. At least that’s what he was going for. He doubted that Joly and Bossuet bought it, they knew him too well.

“Courfeyrac said you had your hearing today. With the disciplinary committee?” Joly’s mock confusion wasn’t very believable, and he knew it because he was trying to hide behind his cupcake.

Grantaire sighed. He loved his friends, but they were one of the gossipy most incestuous groups of people he’d ever met. And he’d met a lot of people that fell into that category. Granted, he hadn’t been in band in high school so he just had to take Chetta at her word that band kids were worse. Still, not cool of Courf to spread his shame. No matter the context.

“I’m on disciplinary probation for a week. For _finals_ week,” he admitted. “It’s such bullshit. What the fuck else is gonna happen in the next couple days?”

“You could climb _another_ academic building,” Bossuet suggested with a smirk. Grantaire just gave him a dry look.

“Why did you go up on the library roof anyway?” Joly asked with genuine curiosity.

Grantaire shrugged, they’d tried to get him to say it was a dare this morning. The Dean was practically begging him to say it was a dare. That somehow that was a more socially acceptable form of stupid than the truth. “I wanted to see what the view was like.”

Bossuet laughed, throwing his head back and nearly knocking it against the wall in the process. Joly moved to intercept, but it was thankfully unnecessary and Grantaire left out a relieved breath.

Taking a huge bite of his cupcake, and getting a giant glob of icing on his nose again, Bossuet began to talk. Years of friendship was the only thing that allowed Grantaire the ability to interpret the muffled speech. “You know, if it were me I wouldn’t have just gotten caught by campo but also fallen _off_ the roof.”

“And likely needed to be rushed to the hospital as a result of your numerous injuries,” Joly added.

Grantaire just snorted, taking a sip of the milk he always got to wash down the chocolate cupcake goodness.

“Good thing GW is right down the street. And that I know someone who landed a summer internship there!” Bossuet elbowed Joly in the side and the other boy tried to wave him off.

“Yes, a _summer_ internship meaning that it won’t start until June and would have been no use had you accompanied R two nights ago.”

Bossuet just ate more of his cupcake. “Schematics.”

Grantaire chuckled, they were ridiculous and obviously trying to cheer him up, but he was a stubborn ass and mad that they’d found out about the whole thing so he wasn’t going to let them. In reality it was more absurd than anything else. The school had put him on disciplinary probation for the very last week of the school year. Because he was “trespassing” and “endangering his safety and others” by managing to get up to the roof of the library cause he wanted to sketch the Potomac at night.

What he was least proud of though was the fact that he hadn’t told anyone about it. Not that they obviously didn’t know anyway. And by “anyone” Grantaire really meant Enjolras. It was embarrassing having to admit that you fucked up so badly with only a week left in the semester to land yourself on disciplinary probation to your perfect boyfriend. The only reason he’d even said anything to Courf was because he’d had to switch dish duty to go to the hearing and Courfeyrac was a nosy little shit.

So yeah, Grantaire had accepted his punishment, went to his last class, and then took his mopey ass to get some cupcakes. He’d been wallowing at the back table ever since. Was still wallowing as Bossuet and Joly were momentarily distracted by their baked goods.

“So,” Joly started, carefully cleaning any stray icing from his hands, “now what?”

“What now what?” R asked, blinking at the other boy for the non sequitur. Well at least it seemed like a non sequitur since he’d been imagining trying to breach the subject of his overwhelming stupidity to Enjolras over dinner tonight and it had spiraled into a massive breakup and Grantaire getting thrown out of the House and Combeferre and Courfeyrac chucking all his shit out the windows as Enjolras verbally berated him for being such a massive fuckup.

“Do you have to pay a fine? Or like write an apology letter?” Joly rolled his hands in a sort of “et cetera” gesture as Bossuet’s face lit up.

“Or! Do you have to write lines with an Umbridge quill? Will you get a scar that says ‘I must not climb buildings’ on your hand?”

Grantaire couldn’t help but laugh at that. “Oh worse, it’ll read ‘I’m a fucking dumbass’ for the rest of my life and I didn’t even save the wizarding world to make it worthwhile.”

“Pity,” Bossuet grinned.

Joly was giggling and it was getting increasingly manic. Grantaire knew he wasn’t that funny so whatever it was that was making Joly laugh it was something that Joly himself had thought of. “Sorry,” he said once he caught his breath. “That made me think of the time at the March for Science when that girl asked you if you wanted to carry a ‘Save the Whales’ sign and you told her that you don’t even save your own ass why would you save the whales, they don’t even have a proper butt!”

R snorted. While that had been one of his finer jokes it wasn’t necessarily one of his finer moments. Enjolras had been so pissed he’d managed to march off in such a huff that by the time they all ended he’d been two and a half blocks ahead of Grantaire. Only Combeferre and, surprisingly, Marius had managed to keep up. Remembering that as Enjolras’s reaction to a joke Grantaire could only imagine what it would be to this whole debacle. And they hadn’t even been dating then.

“R,” Bossuet finally said, grabbing Grantaire’s wrist and his attention. “You’ve gotta get out of your head.”

“Really,” Joly chimed in. “It’s only a week and I’m sure you’ll be on your best behavior. Just focus on your finals and relax. And that’s coming from me. _I’m_ telling you to relax.”

“You’re not the _most_ neurotic,” Grantaire tried to tease.

“Oh, I’m aware,” Joly smirked.

His friends stared him down and damn when did he manage to trick such good people into caring about him? He really didn’t deserve them. They were offering help though and R had been trying to be better about accepting it. His therapist and insisted that he at least _try_ and work on that.

“So?” Bossuet prompted again. “What’s made you destroy that innocent cupcake wrapper?”

Grantaire glanced down at his plate, he’d been subconsciously playing with his fork on his empty plate with the paper wrapper caught between the two. The tongs of the fork had absolutely shredded the poor thing.

Taking a deep breath Grantaire spoke to the cupcake wrapper that he had mutilated. “I haven’t actually told anybody about it yet. And I really don’t know how Enjolras is going to react.”

He held his breath as he waited for their response.

“Dude,” Bossuet’s eye roll was audible so Grantaire didn’t bother looking up. “I know _exactly_ what’s going to happen. He’s going to give you a dry look, call you a massive idiot, make sure you’re ok, probably give you a peck on the lips cause y’all are occasionally cute like that, and then get exasperated about the fact that you’ll get in trouble for a frickin’ view but not an antifa rally.”

Grantaire peered up at them from under the fluff of his dark curls. Bossuet looked sincere and deep-down R knew he was right. Joly was getting a devilish smirk.

“Well, the latter is still a _view_. Just a different kind of one.”

Grantaire groaned but it was an act that quickly subsided to actual laughter that Bossuet and Joly joined him in.

“That was terrible,” R scolded once he’d caught his breath. Joly just shrugged.

“It made you laugh,” Joly said smugly.

“It did,” Grantaire admitted. He did feel better and well Bossuet was right about how telling Enjolras would play out. R would go home, help make dinner and bring up how he came home really late the other night then explain about going up onto the library roof and getting caught by campo and written up and an email from the Dean of Students and the hearing this morning and what amounted to just a warning to not be an idiot for the next seven days.

If he was _really_ being honest with himself Enjolras’s face would probably light up at the prospect of getting onto the library roof. The more he thought about it the more Grantaire could admit that there was an enormous chance he found himself there again tonight with Enjolras sitting next to him.

“You’re looking to be in better spirits,” Joly observed.

“Maybe,” Grantaire deflected but he couldn’t hide his smile from slipping out.

Bossuet reached across the table and shoved lightly at R’s shoulder. “Yeah you are.”

“You know what roof you can climb on without risk of getting killed. Or worse, expelled?” Bossuet grinned and Joly giggled. Grantaire rolled his eyes, they were such nerds and he was so glad that they were his nerds.

“Our roof!” Joly chimed in. “Well our balcony but it’s the apartment’s below us roof.”

Grantaire shook his head, smiling. “Not tonight but yes. This weekend sometime. Tonight, I have to go make sure I don’t give Enj any ideas about the library roof.”

Bossuet and Joly shared a wide-eyed look. “Yeah, did not consider that one.” “Good luck.”

**Author's Note:**

> \- Baked & Wired is the BEST cupcake shop in DC. You can't change my mind on this.


End file.
